From Bondage: Volume III of Mercy of a Rude Stream [Paperback]

Henry Roth (Author)

Book Description

Series: Mercy of a Rude Stream | Publication Date: July 15, 1997

Henry Roth went to sleep for the last time on the evening of October 13, 1995, but not before completing this transcendent novel, which continues "one of the most poignant projects in American literature." As Tolstoy presaged his own passing in The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Roth examines his own imminent death in the most lyrical of ways, telling the story of the elderly writer, Ira Stigman, who in spite of his physical frailties, finds solace and redemption through the re-creation of the fascinating love triangle of his youth. Capturing the dizzying vitality of the 1920s and the literary world of Manhattan, Roth has set the stage for one of the most memorable literary romances of this century.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

After the publication of his first novel, Call It Sleep, at the tender age of 28 in 1934, Henry Roth fell into a writer's block that lasted more than 40 years. He began writing again in the 1970s and Mercy of a Rude Stream, intended to be a six-volume series, is the result. A chronicle of the life of Ira Stigman, the first two volumes, A Star Shines Over Mt. Morris Park and A Diving Rock on the Hudson, were published in 1994 and 1995. Roth died in October of 1995, and the posthumously published From Bondage is the third in the series. Though the novel is full of observations and events from Roth's life, he was adamant before his death that this third volume was not autobiographical. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This third installment of Roth's six-volume saga, Mercy of a Rude Stream (LJ 1/94) continues the story of Ira Stigman, son of East European Jewish immigrant parents and now college aged, as he struggles to find his way in 1920s New York. But, like the previous volumes, it is also the story of Ira the octogenarian writer who, nearing the end of his life (Roth died last October at the age of 89), is trying to come to terms with both the forces and the choices that shaped it. Paralleling Roth's own experience, this volume focuses on the beginnings of what was to become a decade-long affair between Ira and NYU professor Edith Welles. The themes of guilt and redemption permeate this often lyrical depiction of both the immigrant and the artistic experience. Highly recommended.?David Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 420 pages
• Publisher: Picador (July 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312155328
• ISBN-13: 978-0312155322
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,504,981 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE MOST POWERFUL OF HENRY ROTH'S 4 MERCY VOLUMES, March 15, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: From Bondage: Volume III of Mercy of a Rude Stream (Paperback)

I have closely read all four of the MERCY OF A RUDE STREAM VOLUMES, and I feel that this third volume may be the most powerful and affecting. For many readers who are expecting the MERCY series to be just as transcendent as Roth's masterpiece CALL IT SLEEP, they are often disappointed when they start with Volume I of MERCY OF A RUDE STREAM. That volume (called "A Star Shines Over Mt. Morris Park") is a prelude, something of an overture, and it lacks the sheer intensity of feelings produced by CALL IT SLEEP. I would encourage readers instead to begin with FROM BONDAGE (Vol.III) or A DIVING ROCK ON THE HUDSON (VOL. II). If you like what you have read in Volume III, you will be caught up in the drama of the Stigman Family, and you will be able to read Volume I with far greater appreciation. Almost every reader whom I have spoken with is in awe of Roth's genius after having read FROM BONDAGE (and REQUIEM FOR HARLEM, the fourth and final volume, is a real page turner, too).

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding, September 26, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: From Bondage (Mercy of a Rude Stream, Volume III) (Hardcover)

Imagine James Joyce growing up as a poor Jewish immigrant in Harlem in the 1920's. All of Henry Roth's books are outstanding, but this one may well be the best. His work, like Joyce's, is gritty, chaoctic, and tragic at one moment, light and whimsical at the next. Ira Stigman, his hero, is another Stephen Dedalus, adventurous, flawed, and often unmistakably autobiographical. If you are a reader of Joyce, discover the writing of Henry Roth.